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Psalms 58

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The Corruption of Earthly Judges 1–5

1
To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? ​
2
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. ​
4
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. ​

A Prayer for the Destruction of the Wicked 6–9

6
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD. ​
7
Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. ​

The Vindication of God's Righteous Judgment 10–11

10
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. ​
11
So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Psalm 58

Verse 1

Do ye indeed speak righteousness — ‘Righteousness’ is tsedeq and ‘judge’ is shaphat, the work of Israel’s judges, who were to ‘judge the people with just judgment’ and not ‘wrest judgment’ (Deut 16:18–19). ‘Congregation’ is elem, a word that elsewhere means silence. Al-taschith in the title means ‘Destroy not’, as in Ps 57:1.

Verse 3

estranged from the womb — Zur is to turn aside, and ta’ah to wander off. The wicked are said to go wrong ‘from the womb’ (rechem) and ‘as soon as they be born’ (literally from the belly), ‘speaking lies’ (kazav). David says of himself in Ps 51:5, ‘in sin did my mother conceive me’, and Isa 48:8 of Israel, ‘a transgressor from the womb’.

Verse 5

the voice of charmers — Lachash is a whisper, the murmur of the charmer, and ‘charming’ is chabar, to bind with a spell. Moses’s law lists ‘a charmer’ among those not to be consulted (Deut 18:11). Like the ‘deaf adder’ of v.4, which ‘stoppeth her ear’, the wicked will not hearken, as the serpents of Jer 8:17 ‘will not be charmed’.

Verse 6

Break their teeth, O God — Haras, to break down, and nathats, to break out, are used for the ‘teeth’ (shen) and the ‘great teeth’ (malta’ah, fangs) of the ‘young lions’ (kephirim). Ps 3:7 records the answer, ‘thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly’, and Ps 57:4 gave the enemies’ teeth as ‘spears and arrows’.

Verse 9

Before your pots can feel the thorns — Atad is a thorn bush, burned under the cooking-pot (sir); bin, ‘feel’, is literally to perceive. Eccl 7:6 has ‘as the crackling of thorns under a pot’. God takes them away ‘as with a whirlwind’ (sa’ar), as Prov 10:25 says: ‘As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more.’

Verse 10

The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance — ‘Vengeance’ is naqam, redress, and the righteous ‘seeth’ (chazah, to gaze on) it, as Ps 91:8 says, ‘with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked’. The blood is that of Ps 68:23, ‘thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies’. The Lord’s own word is ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay’ (Rom 12:19).

Verse 11

there is a reward for the righteous — ‘Reward’ is peri, fruit, as in Isa 3:10, ‘they shall eat the fruit of their doings’. ‘Verily’ is ak, ‘surely’, and yesh is ‘there is’. God is called a God ‘that judgeth in the earth’ and Ps 67:4 says ‘thou shalt judge the people righteously’.